If you’re having problems downloading email from your old account into Gmail, or if emails are missing or deleted after your import, follow the tips below.
If you only want new emails, set up automatic forwarding instead.
Quick fixes to try first
If you're having problems importing your mail, try the steps below. After you've tried each one, check to see if the problem has been fixed.
- Check that you have entered the right password.
- Make sure that the account you're trying to import from still works.
- Delete and then add the email address that you're importing from again. Here’s how:
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- In the top right, click Settings
See all settings.
- Click the Accounts and Import or Accounts tab.
- In the 'Check mail from other accounts' section, delete the email address that you're importing from, then add it again.
See all settings.If the above steps don't work, check for problems with the program that Gmail uses to get mail from other accounts.
Fix problems connecting to another account
Choose the type of account from which you're having problems importing:
If you're having problems importing email from another email account, such as Outlook or Yahoo, check your other email account's settings. Make sure that:
- The name of the POP server of the other email is the same as the one you entered in Gmail
- The other email program allows messages to be left on the server
- The port is either 110 or 995
If filling out the right info doesn't work or if your other provider doesn't provide POP access, contact the provider.
If you're having problems importing your mail from another Gmail address, including one that you got through work, school/university or another organisation, try these steps.
Change your access settings
If you stop Gmail from blocking certain apps and accounts, your import might start working. In the account from which you're importing, try allowing access to your account.
Check your POP settings
Step 1: In the account that you want to import from, check that you've set up POP.
- On your computer, open your email account.
- In the top right, click Settings
- Open the 'Forwarding and POP/IMAP' tab.
- In the 'POP Download' section, make sure that it says 'POP is enabled'.
Step 2: In the account that you want to import to, check your import settings.
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- In the top right, click Settings
- Open the 'Accounts and Import' tab.
- In the 'Check mail from other accounts' section, select the account that you're trying to import from.
- Make sure you’re using the following settings:
- Username: your full email address (for example, [email protected])
- Password: your Gmail password
- POP server: pop.gmail.com
- Port: 995
- Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server: unticked
- Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail: ticked
- If you aren't getting emails after 2 hours, check for other problems.
Other problems getting emails
If you have one of the following problems, try again later or get in touch with your other email provider:
- Connection timed out
- Connection reset
- Emails arrive more than once
- Emails arrive in the wrong order
- Still getting new emails after you've stopped an import
For the problems below, follow the steps. If the steps don't work, try again later or contact your other email provider.
Delete or move the oldest email that wasn't imported.
Look for an email that has a single full stop on a line by itself. Delete this email.
Your other account has more emails than Gmail is able to import. You can:
- Delete emails from your other inbox
- Move some emails from your inbox into folders
Try searching for your mail:
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- In the search bar at the top, enter 'in:anywhere' and then your search terms.
- Press Return or Enter.
You can also check folders in your other email account for emails that weren't imported.
- Turn off automatic forwarding from your other email account.
- In the 'Filters' section of your Gmail settings, add a label. Learn how to create a filter to organise your emails.
- Check that you entered the right username and password for your other account.
- If you are importing mail from another Gmail address, make sure that POP is turned on.
- Try changing your access settings in the account from which you're importing emails. You might also need to stop using an extra security step in that account.
Can't find emails after importing
If some of your emails are missing after you've imported them, follow the steps below. After you've tried each step, check to see if the problem has been fixed.
Gmail puts all replies to an email in one conversation thread. To view all emails in a thread:
- Open Gmail.
- Open an email.
- At the top right, click Expand all
. The full emails appear.
. The full emails appear.Gmail can't import emails that are 150 MB or bigger, including any attachments.
Here's how to search Gmail for emails by size:
- Open Gmail.
- In the search box:
- To search for emails by size, enter
size:followed by the size in bytes. For example:size:1000000 - To search for emails bigger than a certain size, enter
larger:followed by the size in bytes. For example:larger:10 M - To search for emails smaller than a certain size, enter
smaller:followed by the size in bytes. For example:smaller:10 M
- To search for emails by size, enter
To check the size of an email from a different provider, such as Outlook or Yahoo, refer to the other provider's customer support.
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- In the top right, click Settings
- Open the 'Accounts and Import' tab.
- In the 'Import mail and contacts' section, check whether your import appears.
- If your import appears in the 'Import mail and contacts' section but you can't find messages, check your old account to see whether it uses POP. If so, it could mean that your old email client deleted messages before they were moved to Gmail.
- If your import doesn't appear in 'Import mail and contacts', go to the next section.
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- In the top right, click Settings
- Find the 'Check email from other accounts' section. If your import appears there, click Edit info.
- Check whether you checked the "Leave a copy of retrieved messages on the server" box.
- If the box is ticked, the emails might have been deleted from the old account before the import started.
- If the box isn't ticked, the emails aren't in your old account. Emails might have been deleted from your old account before the import started.
Still having problems?
If you still have problems, check your account settings, contact your third-party email provider or post a question in the Gmail Help Forum.